My first photography show opened on Kauai’s North Shore at Kilauea Bakery, and it’s dedicated to the majestic Laysan Albatross, a seabird with chicks popping out of eggs as I write this. The show will hang for the month of February. If you’re in the neighborhood, stop by. If not, here are the images hanging in the show. Click on a thumbnail to enlarge it. And if you are inspired to see these birds in the wild, a great place to catch them this time of year is Kilauea Point National Wildlife Refuge where they often circle the historic lighthouse en route to their breeding grounds on the refuge.

Scroll down for details and purchasing information.

Flying Machine

Egg Tooth

Parental Bonds

Devoted

Fortitude

Fidelity

Mombrella

Home Body

Sky Moo

Three Months

Five Months

Four Months

One Month

Tube Nose

Incoming

Covered Lanai

Grand Master Pilot

Covered Lanai
Photography on Metallic Paper
16 x 24 inches
Ready to hang
Mounted on lightweight backing
Black finished edge on all sides; 3/4″ depth
$175
After about two weeks when the Laysan Albatross chick no longer “fits,” its parents will both turn their efforts to foraging at sea. Time between visits will grow from a couple days to a couple weeks during the next four months, as the chick learns what it means to wait patiently. When a parent does return with a belly full of food, however, the chick will make its hunger known.

Home Body
Photography on Metal
12 x 12 inches
Satin finish; minimal glare
Ready to hang
Floats 1/2″ off the wall when hung
$100
The days after a chick hatches is often called the “guard phase,” as its parent guards it from the weather, be it too much sun, too much rain, too much wind. Keep in mind, the entire time the parents are incubating and guarding, they are fasting. As seabirds, their meals come entirely from the sea.

Mombrella
Photography on Metal
12 x 12 inches
Satin finish; minimal glare
Ready to hang
Floats 1/2″ off the wall when hung
$100
Once a chick hatches, for the next couple weeks, a parent will stay with it to help protect it from the elements—give it shelter from the rain, provide a wind block, and, alternately, keep the chick warm or cool. Keep in mind, the entire time the parents are incubating and guarding, they are fasting. As seabirds, their meals come entirely from the sea.

Parental Bonds
Photography on Metal
12 x 18 inches
Satin finish; minimal glare
Ready to hang
Floats 1/2″ off the wall when hung
$125
Laysan Albatross practice equal opportunity parenting. Both males and females take turns incubating their egg and feeding. For the first couple weeks after hatching, one parent will stay with their chick until it is able to thermoregulate on its own. After that, both parents will head to the sea to forage for squid and fish to feed their growing and hungry chick.

Egg Tooth
Photography on Metal
12 x 12 inches
Satin finish; minimal glare
Ready to hang
Floats 1/2″ off the wall when hung
$100
Some 62 to 65 days after the egg is laid, the developing Laysan Albatross chick will use an “egg tooth” on the end of its bill to pierce the inner membrane and shell of its egg. Once a hole is formed, the chick is said to be “pipping.” It can take two to three days for the chick to completely hatch. The egg tooth falls off soon after.

One Month
Photography on Metallic Paper
12 x 18 inches
Ready to hang or frame
Mounted lightweight backing
Black finished edge on all sides; 3/4″ depth
$100
When Laysan Albatross hatch, their wings are nothing more than stubs. It’s almost impossible to believe that in five months, their wings will stretch to six-and-a-half feet long.

Three Months
Photography on Metallic Paper
12×18 inches
Ready to hang or frame
Mounted on lightweight backing
Black finished edge on all sides; 3/4″ depth
$100
Often, Laysan Albatross chicks are on Kaua‘i are banded before they head out to sea on their first flight that will not see them return to land for two to five years. This banding practice is how scientists discovered the oldest known wild bird in the world—a Laysan Albatross who is 66 years old this year.

Four Months
Photography on Metallic Paper
Ready to hang or frame
Mounted on lightweight backing
Black finished edge on all sides; 3/4″ depth
12 x 12 inches
$75
When a Laysan Albatross chick fledges, it will sport plumage nearly identical that of its parent. But the last of the feathering to grow in takes place on its head. If you look closely, you can see the white feathers here starting to push out the downy brown ones.

Five Months
Photography on Metallic Paper
12 x 12 inches
Ready to hang or frame
Mounted lightweight backing
Black finished edge on all sides; 3/4″ depth
$75
Mowhawks. Mullets. And sideburns like Elvis. As a Laysan Albatross chicks lose their downy feathers, their appearance can be downright comical. Oh, those awkward teenage years.

Tube Nose
Photography on Metal
18 x 12 inches
Satin finish; minimal glare
Ready to hang
Floats 1/2″ off the wall when hung
$125
Laysan Albatross belong to a group of birds known as “tubenoses.” They have a special gland in their head that extracts excess salt from their blood and excretes it through the two openings in their bill. This allows them to sip saltwater without becoming dehydrated. The excretion runs along the gutters of their four-inch bill to form a droplet that falls from the tip.

Sky Moo
Photography on Metallic Paper
12 x 18 inches
Ready to hang or frame
Mounted lightweight backing
Black finished edge on all sides; 3/4″ depth
$100
The courtship dance of Laysan Albatross is elaborate and complete with numerous moves and sounds, including shaking heads, dueling bills, whinnying, bill clacking, and, here, the sky moo. A really exuberant sky moo will see an amorous Laysan Albatross rise onto tiptoe, and maybe even clear a bit of air.

Fidelity
Photography on Metal
12 x 18 inches
Satin finish; minimal glare
Ready to hang
Floats 1/2″ off the wall when hung
$125
Laysan Albatross nest in nearly the same exact spot year after year. This is likely because Laysan albatross live independently at sea and need an agreed upon meeting spot when breeding season comes around.

Fortitude
Photography on Metal
12 x 18 inches
Satin finish; minimal glare
Ready to hang
Floats 1/2″ off the wall when hung
$125
Because Laysan Albatross exhibit a high degree of natal philopatry, they tend to return to the place they hatched to breed. They are also known as synchronous nesters, meaning that while they live independently at sea, they return to land the same week each November to breed. They practice a “same time next year” kind of love story.

Devoted
Photography on Metal
12 x 18 inches
Satin finish; minimal glare
Ready to hang
Floats 1/2″ off the wall when hung
$125
Laysan Albatross form long-term pair bonds. When a chick fledges at about five months of age, it heads out to sea. The only reason it will return to land, some two to five years later, is to find a mate. And that selection process may take an additional two to five years. Laysan Albatross do not begin reproducing until they are six to 10 years of age.

Incoming
Photography on Metal
12 x 18 inches
Satin finish; minimal glare
Ready to hang
Floats 1/2″ off the wall when hung
$125
While Laysan Albatross exhibit the grace of a prima ballerina in the air, when they return to land after months and, even, years at sea, their landings are not always pin-point. If they land in soft dirt, they may skid to a stop. Other times, they may even tumble head over heals.

Grand Master Pilot
Photography on Metal
12 x 18 inches
Satin finish; minimal glare
Ready to hang
Floats 1/2″ off the wall when hung
$125
Author, scientist, and ocean conservationist, Carl Safina describes albatross as the “grandest living flying machine on earth.” Laysan Albatross have been tracked to cover the North Pacific for two weeks in search of food for their chick back on Kaua‘i, clocking five thousand miles in the process. To say they’ve mastered flight is no exaggeration.

Flying Machine
Photography on Metallic Paper
Ready to hang or frame
Mounted lightweight backing
Black finished edge on all sides; 3/4″ depth
12 x 18 inches
$100
Author, scientist, and ocean conservationist, Carl Safina describes albatross as the “grandest living flying machine on earth.” Laysan Albatross have been tracked to cover the North Pacific for two weeks in search of food for their chick back on Kaua‘i, clocking five thousand miles in the process. To say they’ve mastered flight is no exaggeration.

No copyright/watermark will appear on the prints. To purchase any of these images, please email kimsrogers@mac.com.

All images on this site are solely the property of Kim Steutermann Rogers. These photographs are protected by copyright laws, and are not to be downloaded, printed, or reproduced without express written permission of Kim Steutermann Rogers.